By Andrew Gans
24 Dec 2004
Q: When did you and LaChiusa first meet?
McDonald: At my very first audition for Carousel. I sang for [Lincoln Center Theater producer-director] Ira Weitzman and [casting director] Daniel Swee, and they said, "Can you go back out in the waiting room and wait?" And, then they said, "We want someone to hear you." And then they brought me back in, and they had Michael John and [choreographer] Graciela [Daniele] and said we want you to sing for them. That's when I first met both of them.
Q: You're also going to make your Houston Opera debut. . .
McDonald: Yes, I'm doing a double-bill. The first half is Gian Carlo Minotti's The Telephone, which is actually two people, and then the second half is La Voix Humaine, which is a one-woman opera. Both of them take place on the phone, which is the fun part about it. One is a happy ending, and one is very much not a happy ending. [Laughs.]
Q: Did you ever want to pursue opera?
McDonald: I went back and forth while I was at [Juilliard] as I started to discover that I had an operatic sound. I went back and forth with "Well, maybe I do want to be an opera singer." But my first love has always been Broadway. I think what I've learned is that opera is a possibility if it's the right role and the right situation, as opposed to I want to make a full-tilt boogie run at that — that's not me.
Q: How has it been combining motherhood and working?
McDonald: It's very difficult, especially as they get older. When she was a baby — I remember, I think maybe Zoe was a month or two months old, and I was on the phone with Patti [LuPone] and I was asking her how she did it, and she said, "Honey, they're just potatoes at this age. You just take 'em with you. It's your own little sack of potatoes to take with you." But as they get older, you can't really travel with them as much, and they're more aware of you being gone. So it's a difficult thing to juggle.
McDonald: New York.
Q: Will you be here for the holidays?
McDonald: Yes, thank God! I wouldn't want to be any other place. [Laughs.]
[The Frederick P. Rose Hall is located within the Time Warner Center at Broadway at 60th Street. Tickets for American Songbook are available by calling (212) 721-6500. Visit www.lincolncenter.org for more information.
DIVA TIDBITS:
Nothing Like a Dame — the annual fundraiser benefiting The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative of The Actors’ Fund of America — celebrates its tenth anniversary in March. Presented by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the tenth annual Nothing Like a Dame concert will be held March 14, 2005, at the St. James Theatre. Those participating in the event will be announced shortly. Tickets for Nothing Like a Dame 2005 will go on sale Jan. 5, 2005, by calling (212) 840-0770, ext. 268. Visit www.broadwaycares.org for more information.
That glittering gigastar, Dame Edna Everage, will make her Metropolitan Opera debut Dec. 31. Everage, who is currently delighting Broadway audiences in Back With a Vengeance, will be part of the Metropolitan Opera's New Year's Eve gala performance of Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). Everage will appear in the second act of the Rossini opera during the "music lesson scene." The scene, which finds Rosina and Count Almaviva in a lovers' tryst, will boast the unique vocals of Everage. The Met's production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia features Katarina Karnéus as Rosina, Matthew Polenzani as Count Almaviva and Dwayne Croft as Figaro. Maurizio Benini conducts the 7:30 PM performance. For tickets, call (212) 362-6000 or visit www.metopera.org.
BBC Radio 2 will celebrate Boxing Day — Dec. 26 — with a rebroadcast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. The recording features Petula Clark as the deluded silent screen star Norma Desmond and Michael Ball as the ill-fated screenwriter. The broadcast, which was taped this past March at the Royal Opera House in Cork, will air at 6:30 PM London time. (Ball will also be featured in a Christmas Eve concert on BBC Radio 2 Dec. 24; that concert airs at 7:30 PM.) For more information visit Click Here.
The new Disney musical On the Record, which features songs from both classic Disney films and Disney's Broadway outings, will be recorded Jan. 10, 2005. Kaitlin Hopkins, who is set to replace Emily Skinner in the touring production, will be featured on the CD. The recording will also include the vocal talents of co-stars Brian Sutherland, Ashley Brown and Andrew Samonsky as well as company members Meredith Inglesby, Andy Karl, Tyler Maynard, Keewa Nurullah, Josh Franklin, Leigh Ann Larkin, Koh Mochizuki and Lyn Philistine. No release date has yet been announced.
Well, that's all for now. Happy holidays, and happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.
(Look for a condensed version of "Diva Talk" in the theatre edition of Playbill Magazine.)
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